Lioness Justice Impacted Womens Alliance

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
994771631
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2024
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Phone
9033313486
Rating
64
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Inmate Support

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$733,197
Expenses
$204,883
Assets
$569,202
Liabilities
$-6,714

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Lori Mellinger (President)
  • Jennifer Toon (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Jennifer Toon (Executive Director): $24,000 total reported compensation
  • Lori Mellinger (President): $500 total reported compensation
  • Alexa Garza (Secretary): $500 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Lioness Justice Impacted Women's Alliance is a nonprofit organization led by currently and formerly incarcerated girls, women, and gender-expansive individuals. Its mission is to reduce incarceration and address systemic inequities affecting these populations within the Texas criminal legal system through advocacy, community-based support, and leadership development.

What it reported doing in 2025

Organizing - Lioness Justice Impacted Women's Alliance engages in community organizing led by formerly and currently incarcerated women, girls, and gender-expansive people across Texas. This program builds leadership, strengthens relationships, and creates peer-led spaces for connection, support, and civic participation. Organizing is carried out through regional, community-based efforts where directly impacted members lead meetings and outreach. Lioness provides leadership development, mentorship, and coordination to support members in facilitating these spaces. In 2025, Lioness conducted 25 leadership training sessions and supported members in stepping into leadership roles, including serving as speakers and community educators. Members participated in local and statewide spaces where they shared lived experiences and contributed to community discussions.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 43
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Accountability: 68
  • Sustainability: 70
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 20.1%; rating input score 20
  • Program expense ratio: 72.1%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: $36.72 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 22
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 72.1%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.78; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.7%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: 20.1% of revenue deployed · 72.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $148K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $24K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 20/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 9 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 30/100.